


Woodsmoke

by AuditoryCheesecake



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: (post episode 52), Camping, Cuddling & Snuggling, F/F, First Kiss, Fluff, Just gals being pals, Oneshot, very mild spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-13
Updated: 2019-05-13
Packaged: 2020-03-02 12:22:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18810814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AuditoryCheesecake/pseuds/AuditoryCheesecake
Summary: Jester and Beau take first watch, and a small risk. It pays off.





	Woodsmoke

“Ugh.” Beau leans so far back she almost falls over, and waves a hand in front of her face. “I hate campfires.”

Jester savors the last sips of her tea. They’re the only two still awake, so she lets herself admire the way Beau’s whole body curves. The night is cold enough that Jester’s dragged a blanket out to put over her shoulders, but Beau is a furnace or something, because she’s not even wearing her vest.

If this were a book, the firelight would be glistening on her bare, supple abs, or something. 

“No matter where I sit, the smoke blows in my face.” Beau lies all the way down and then rolls over a few times, winding up a little closer to Jester. “It’s the worst.”

If this were a book, Jester would have had a bath less than a week ago, and they wouldn’t have gotten in an argument yesterday about where Jester’s socks went (they had been inside one of her sleeves, for some reason) and Caduceus wouldn’t be snoring quite so loudly somewhere behind her. If this were a book, she’d say something totally suave and sexy and not sit on a rock and just stare.

Beau sits up and bends all the way forward, putting her head on her knees. Jester can see every muscle in her back moving when Beau looks at her expectantly.

“Oh, yeah, totally,” she says quickly. “It definitely sucks.”

“Can you fix it with magic or something? Like how you opened all the windows in that inn and almost got us kicked out?”

“I didn’t almost get us kicked out,” Jester huffs. “Not all on my own.”

“Right.” Beau’s smiling now, and Jester wants to pause everything right there so she can draw it. Beau’s not great at smiling, not for real. Her fake smiles can be scary good and her angry smiles are scary hot but her happy smiles are a little rusty. She’s getting better, though. It would probably be weird to tell her that. Probably. But it’s nice to see. “Can you make the smoke leave me alone, though?”

“No,” she says, drawing out the word. “But you can come sit over here with me. The wind’s blowing east, that’s why you’re in the smoke.”

She sees Beau hesitate, but only for a second. “Okay. Push over.”

There’s not much room for both of them on Jester’s rock, but they huddle together pretty well anyways.

It’s nice. Jester used to get a lot of hugs, growing up. From her mom, obviously, and from Blude and Nadine and sometimes the Traveler too. But Caduceus and Nott are the only ones who do a lot of hugs here. She likes being close to people. She likes being close to Beau.

For a while, the only sounds are the fire crackling and the nighttime bugs chirping in the tall grass. The smoke blows away from them, back towards Rosana. 

Jester sits very still while Beau starts to doze off, her head sliding onto Jester’s shoulder and one arm around Jester’s waist so she doesn’t fall. She tries to match her breathing to Beau’s– slow, and calm, and totally not like she’s freaking out or anything.

Beau’s hair is down, and it brushes softly on the side of Jester’s face when she moves. Her breath makes adorable little whistling noises every couple of minutes. She’s really warm, and Jester could probably pick her up and put her in her bed roll if she moved carefully. She doesn’t want to move at all, though.

The fire pops. Beau sighs in her sleep. Jester’s leg starts to go a little numb. 

Finally she has to move at least a little. “Psst. Beau.”

“Nrgfgl?” Beau mumbles into her shoulder.

“Wake up Beau.” Jester pokes her gently in her (warm, bare, muscly) side.

Beau spasms very slightly, waking up with a start and then freezing stock still. “What? I’m totally awake. Is there something out there?”

Jester giggles. “You smell like woodsmoke.”

“Fuck you too,” Beau says softly, and stretches. “Bet I still smell better than Caleb.”

“He is not anywhere as dirty as he used to be, and you know it,” Jester scolds her. “And technically, I didn’t say you smell bad. You smell like woodsmoke. And it smells nice. Not like, super nice or anything, but pretty okay.”

She keeps looking straight ahead when Beau turns on the rock to face her. Her face is very close to Jester’s. It’s a good thing Beau can’t see in the dark or she would know how hard she’s blushing.

“Thanks,” Beau says. 

Jester nods quickly. “No problem, or whatever. It’s totally fine and I totally wasn’t like, smelling you while you were sleeping or something. That would be super weird and not something I would do at all.”

“I believe you,” Beau says. Jester can see her smiling but she can’t meet her eyes. ”You smell nice too.”

They’re still pressed together from their knees to their hips, and Beau is really close and she’s smiling. Jester feels her tail curling out of embarrassment. She totally knows Jester was staring at her before.

“Hey Jester,” Beau says, really softly. She touches Jester’s cheek and turns her head, carefully. Jester could totally not let her, if she wanted, but Beau’s fingers on her skin feel better than the warmth from the fire. She looks at Beau. “Can I kiss you?”

Jester isn’t very familiar with speechlessness. “What?”

Beau’s fingertips are on Jester’s cheek and just under her jaw. “I think you smell nice and I wanna kiss you."

They stare at each other. Beau shrugs and looks down, but Jester knows she means it. Her heart does a funny little flutter.

"Sorry, that’s not really romantic, I don’t really know how to do that.”

“It’s super romantic!” Jester says. “I think you smell really nice too!”

Beau opens her mouth to say something else, but Jester leans in and kisses her then. If this were a book, Jester would have had breath like sweetmint and springtime, but she probably didn’t. And if it were a book, she wouldn’t have leaned too far and wobbled on the rock and Beau wouldn’t have had to catch her, and neither of them would have almost stuck a foot in the fire, and Caduceus would have been snoring in a different tent a mile away where they couldn’t even hear him.

But if it were a book, they would have had to go have passionate embraces, which they couldn’t really do while they were on watch. They wouldn’t have been able to sit side by side under Jester’s blanket and hold each other’s hands and talk about nothing until Yasha and Nott woke up to take the next shift, and Beau wouldn’t have fallen asleep on her shoulder again and have to be carried back to the tent.

Jester spreads her blanket over both of them and lies down. Beau opens her eyes just long enough to smile at her, and then they both fall asleep.


End file.
